1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for broadcast transmission in a facsimile system and, more particularly, to a technique for automatically retransmitting a telephone number after a transmission failure in a broadcast transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
The development of advanced scientific technology and the acceleration of industrialization require all kinds of office equipment to have more convenient and various functions for users. For this purpose, a broadcast transmission function provided in a facsimile system has been developed.
In a facsimile system for controlling a broadcast transmission, a control unit for controlling an overall operation of the facsimile system executes the following operations. When a broadcast transmission job is started according to a user's command, the control unit reads out broadcast transmission telephone numbers from a database. Various broadcast transmission telephone numbers can be entered in the broadcast transmission job or in respectively different actual telephone number databases. The control unit reads out a telephone number and an end location telephone number from the database. This end location telephone number is the last telephone number to be dialed and transmitted. The control unit dials a telephone number and after being dialed, a determination is made as to whether or not there is a response in the facsimile system from a receiving party. If there is no response, a determination is made as to whether or not the telephone number corresponds to the last telephone number of the broadcast transmission. If there is a next telephone number, an index of the next telephone number is designated and then the system returns to the step of reading a telephone number. On the other hand, if there is a response, a message previously stored in a data memory is transmitted to the facsimile of the receiving part. This message may be composed of multiple pages. A determination is then made as to whether or not the transmission has successfully been completed. If an error has been generated during the transmission of the multiple pages, information of the remaining page or pages are stored in the memory. This information is used for the pages to be retransmitted at the time of the next redialing. The procedure then goes to the previously noted step of determining whether or not the telephone number corresponds to the last telephone number of the broadcast transmission.
In the meantime, if the telephone number corresponds to the last telephone number of the broadcast transmission, a determination is made as to whether or not the transmission has successfully been completed. If the transmission has failed, a determination is made as to whether or not a predetermined retry counter number value has been exceeded. If not exceeded, one is added to the retry counter number value and the operation returns to the step of reading the telephone number from the database. On the contrary, if the predetermined retry counter number value has been exceeded, a report of the broadcast transmission failure is outputted. The report includes the information of the failed telephone number, the job number, and the number of pages transmitted, which is stored in the memory. At this time, the user must reset and perform the broadcast transmission for the failed telephone number.
As mentioned above, the broadcast transmission is once finished by printing the successful telephone number, the failed telephone number and the number of each page. Then, the user has to identify the report and then again perform the procedure of setting the broadcast transmission or individual transmission job. Therefore, when there are a lot of telephone numbers and pages to be transmitted, there is a problem occasioning inconvenience to its user since a great deal of time and labor is required. Moreover, when some pages of the total number of pages are selectively required to be transmitted, there is another problem where such a retry job is impossible. There is another problem in that some already transmitted pages may be transmitted again, thereby causing its user to pay a wasteful correspondence fee.
The following patents each disclose features of the present invention but do not teach or disclose the specifically recited combination constituting the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,938 to Fukushima, entitled Facsimile Apparatus And Method For Transmitting Information To A Plurality Of Destinations, U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,100 to Bloomfield et al., entitled Facsimile Store And Forward System With Local Interface Translating DTMF Signals Into Store And Forward System Commands, U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,854 to Makino, entitled Data Communication Apparatus For Multi-Address Transmission Which Directly Transmits To The Destination Station Upon Detecting Non-Delivery Status, U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,206 to Fukushima, entitled Facsimile Apparatus Capable Of Re-Transmitting The Same Image Data, U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,231 to Bloomfield, entitled Sender-Based Facsimile Store And Forward Facility, U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,584 to Gordon et al., entitled Facsimile Telecommunications System And Method, U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,373 to Hisano, entitled Facsimile Machine Having Store And Forward Mode, U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,664 to Jang, entitled Method For Increasing Communication Efficiency In A Multiport Facsimile, U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,305 to Sakashita et al., entitled Facsimile Network System Capable Of Carrying Out Broadcast Communication, U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,035 to Hayafune, entitled Facsimile Apparatus Having Redialing Function, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,131 to Umeno, entitled Facsimile Machine Having Function Of Retrieving Stored Documents Waiting For Transmission.